Posted
by
BeauHDon Sunday April 22, 2018 @12:06PM
from the blast-from-the-past dept.

On Friday, Silicon Valley photo-sharing and storage company SmugMug announced it had acquired Flickr, the photo-sharing site created in 2004 by Ludicorp and acquired in 2005 by Yahoo. SmugMug CEO Don MacAskill told USA TODAY he's committed to revitalizing the faded social networking site, which hosted photos and videos long before it became trendy. Flickr will reportedly continue to operate separately, and SmugMug and Flickr accounts will "remain separate and independent for the foreseeable future." From the report: He declined to disclose the terms of the deal, which closed this week. "Flickr is an amazing community, full of some of the world's most passionate photographers. It's a fantastic product and a beloved brand, supplying tens of billions of photos to hundreds of millions of people around the world," MacAskill said. "Flickr has survived through thick-and-thin and is core to the entire fabric of the Internet." The surprise deal ends months of uncertainty for Flickr, whose fate had been up in the air since last year when Yahoo was bought by Verizon for $4.5 billion and joined with AOL in Verizon's Oath subsidiary.

I still feel like Flickr has one of the best viewing experiences for photographs around, much better than Instagram, which is more about casual lifestyle photos, or even 500px which is more of a direct competitor... Flickr is really nice for following people who like to take more considered and composed photos than just random bits of this or that.

I've had a Flickr account for ages. When my old email address up and died I lost control of my photos because the idiots can't figure out how to deal with a dead email. They've sent me to all sorts of pages to attempt to resolve my reality but their old data is so fucked up that they're convinced I'm not me.

Flickr is really nice for following people who like to take more considered and composed photos than just random bits of this or that.

The problem is, the number of photographers who like to take “more considered and composed photos” is not growing particularly fast (or maybe at all), while the selfie-shooters keep inundating us with ever-accelerating piles of crap photos - what Instagram is good for.

Yes, I am old - and I really don’t get the insistence that every image of a place needs to have the person taking the photo as the focus. When you’re at the Eiffel Tower, that should be the focus!

The problem is, the number of photographers who like to take âoemore considered and composed photosâ is not growing particularly fast (or maybe at all), while the selfie-shooters keep inundating us

That's not a problem for Flickr though - at least anymore.

Under Yahoo they may have wanted that kind of growth from Flickr. But SmugMug is an owner used to more serious photographic professionals, so they will understand that the growth will be much slower than Instagram or the like.

I find this buyout mildly amusing since, way back when I was first considering a paid online photo service, I kept vacillating between SmugMug and Flickr - and eventually went with Flickr. What goes around, comes around - Flickr customers are now SmugMug customers.

I really hope it works out for both. I am glad Flickr’s back in the hands of people who care about photography.

The single quickest way to find a half-way decent Creative Commons photo to use in your next work presentation or social media post is Flickr. Flickr is still well stocked with good quality snaps and 'proper photography' that has a working 'search by license', and doesn't have some weird download requirement that tries to trick you into paying or getting subscription or whatever. Other sites exist, but you'd have to visit a dozen of them to get a similar choice of pictures to choose from.

With google offering a very seamless "unlimited" if you let them "scale down" to 16Mpixel or 1080p (more than enough for all casual users) I see it unlikely that flickr will put any tighter limits than now, at least for total pictures.

Yes, that's a lot of photos and I'm worried. How long before they start changing things and turn Flickr into crap? They say "no changes" - but by now we've learned not to believe such statements from tech companies. It's a wakeup call that my pix may become lost and I'd best start moving them NOW.

as far as I understand smugmug sells photos and clothing with the pictures

You misunderstand.

Users of Smugmug can choose to enable sale of photographs but it is the photographer's choice and not that of Smugmug. Smugmug make little if anything from those sales too, the fees go to the printers.

The professional grade accounts on Smugmug can choose the prices and receive the income too. They can also use more expensive print shops should they choose.